The Courts of Quarter Sessions were local (County) courts set up in 1361. They were held, as the name implies, 4 times a year, and normally in the County Town. Some ancient boroughs also had the right to hold their own. Minor crimes could be dealt with at these Sessions but more serious ones were dealt with by the Assizes. This could mean that a suspect was sometimes held in prison for many months until the next Assizes were held. Both the Quarter Sessions and Assizes were abolished in 1972 when they were replaced by the Crown Court.
Manorial Courts could also deal with minor cases until the 16th Century
The Quarter Sessions in each county were made up of two or more Justices of the Peace, presided over by a chairman (the senior JP), who sat with a jury. Boroughs had a single recorder instead of a bench of justices. Every court of quarter sessions had a clerk called the clerk of the peace. For county quarter sessions, this person was appointed by the custos rotulorum of the county – the justice of the peace (JP) for the county charged with custody of its rolls and records. The Clerk was paid and often he was a relation or close friend of the JP. Sheriffs were appointed by the King and were a Tax collector and administered Justice locally. In 1195 Knights were appointed to assist with this, they were known as the Keeper of the Peace. As you can imagine there was often dispute between the Sheriff and the Keeper! The Keepers presided over the County Courts and in 1327 they became Justices of the Peace. Commissions of the Peace were held quarterly from 1361 and they met in every County, apart from Middlesex, part of the City of London which had it’s own Court. These were continued until 1888 when the power was given to County Councils and this continued to 1972.
The General Eyres were small groups of travelling Judges who visited the County circuits to preside over the Courts. They were supposed to be held every 7 years but this varied widely. Kent was in the Home circuit. The General Eyre was suspended in 1294 and was replaced with the Court of Assize, which was superior to the Quarter Sessions Court.
From the 16th Century many Sessions were held out of official courts, for instance in local inns. These would be without a Jury and were known as Summary Jurisdiction.
The duties of the JPs included appointing Parish Officers, approving Parish accounts, Removal Orders, remanding suspects and so on. When two or more JPs met together it was known as a Court of Petty Sessions. These Courts of Petty Sessions were held prior to the Quarter Sessions and were later known as Magistrates’ courts. They dealt with minor crimes, bastardy orders etc and decided whether to send cases to the Quarter sessions. From 1872 they also dealt with issuing licences such as for Gamekeepers and Alehouses.
The business of the Quarter Sessions covered 3 areas.
Crimes: Offences against Bye Laws, Petty Larceny, Transportation below 7 years, non Payment of Taxes and Poor Law offences.
Administrative: Including Removals and Settlements, Bastardy Orders, Oaths, Taxes, checking Craftsmen had Guild Status, Militia, Highways and Recusancy issues (after initially the Church Courts), issuing Licences etc
Public Registry: Any records had to be held by the Clerk of the Peace, these included Enclosure awards, Parliamentary plans such as Railways, Canals or Highways, storing licenses, electoral lists and any documents relating to those under public scrutiny, such as Catholics or Freemasons.
Records of the Quarter sessions are normally in the County Archives, or in those cases where it was a Borough session they will be in the town archives. Some County Archives have put them online but for most you will need to visit the Archives in person. Some have finding aids; Kent Archives have theirs on this link.
For the Boroughs you may need to search to find the location of the records.
Session Rolls contain all the documents produced at a particular Court session. This includes writs (orders to Sheriffs), lists of Bailiffs, Jurors, indictments, witness statements and a calendar of prisoners. The Order books are a formal record of the proceedings of the Court and usually deal with administrative measures such as settlement and removals, apprenticeships, bastardy cases and enclosure awards. Minutes, process or session books are the scribbled minutes of the court and may be the only surviving record of that particular court case.
(Indictment lists name the plaintiff and defendant and sometimes that is the only surviving document.) Once the jury has considered the case if they think there is a case to answer it is marked as “true Bill”; if not it will be marked ignoramus.
If you are researching your family history there may be many reasons for looking at the Quarter Session records. You may be searching for a settlement dispute or bastardy order, a Catholic ancestor or someone who was transported. Your family member may have been a gamekeeper or publican with a licence or a magistrate, constable or militiaman. You might also look at Acts of Enclosure to see a description of land held by your ancestor and newspaper headlines may give details of court proceedings that you can investigate more fully by accessing Quarter Session Records.